good morning. coming up on "your business," there is trouble brewing with this detroit woman's tea company. we'll find out what her challenges are and see if the yo"your business" makeover team can help her grow her business. we bring in two retailer experts to show a store other than how to turn foot traffic into sales. and what for-profits can learn from the man running a nonprofit that is helping to bring clean water around the world. lots of information and inspiration coming up next on yo"your business."

hi everyone. i'm jj ramberg and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your growing business. one of my favorite segments that we do is our makeovers where we get to dive in with a team of 1k3er7 experts to try to turn things around for a struggling business owner. we got an e-mail from a woman, the detroit based founder and other than of ellis island tropical tea. she wants to grow her regional beverage company into a national

brand and she said she needs help do it. she also told us that she is absolutely determined to succeed in this business or die trying. and after spending the day with her, i believe it. so we decided to give her a "your business" makeover. ♪ we're here in detroit because of a letter we received from a woman that started an ice tea company eight years ago and while she's seen some success, the company is not nearly where she wants to be. so she let us know she needs a "your business" makeover. let's go meet her. hi. so nice to meet you. >> good to have you. >> this 29-year-old is a homegrown detroit beverage entrepreneur. she started the company eight years ago brewing tea at her mother's house and distributing it out of the back her car. now she's got her own bottling

facility. so this is where it all happens? >> yeah, this is my baby. we do not use any tea sewer rips or concentrate. we seep real herbs.rips or concentrate. we seep real herbs. then weed a t add the sweetener. >> reporter: she's taken a treasured family recipe developed by her great grandfather. he served this brew on passenger ships back in the roaring '20s. today she sells it as ellis island tropical tea. and it's being distributed through hundreds of retail locations like whole foods and meijer and more to come. >> is this month they will put us in all the krogers in michigan mitch. i'm doing business in airports. i've got a distributor as large as u.s. foods. >> when you give that list, it sounds fantastic. >> reporter: these accomplishments have brought her lots of attention.

she was named to forbes 30 under 30, michigan food show entrepreneur of the year, and has had a number of national and local tv appearances. looks like everything is going great. so why did she write to us? >> if you had to measure her business on a scale from uh-oh to this is amazing, where would she fall? >> i think it's probably in the first third of near uh-oh. i think there are issues based on con vefsh sayings with her that need to be addressed. >> arrest 24ur isthur is a beve. we asked him what he thinks. >> if this were your business, would you throw in the towel? >> i might. it could be fixed, but it requires a lot of fixing. >> that's why we're here. arthur said there were a whole bunch of issues and none of them came as any surprise to niela.

the first, packaging. we went to the local whole foods to check out the display. >> so against like all these brands on the shelf are local, it doesn't pop. it doesn't -- the label is not serving its purpose. >> when you are on shelf next to 30 other ice teas, 100 other beverages, you have to pop. >> so i need help with my packaging. i need a lot of help because i have no idea what i'm doing with that. >> then there is the distribution. right now ellis island tea is in about 300 stores, including whole foods and krogers. that sounds pretty impressive. but while it's a nice start, it's nowhere near where she needs to be. >> the threshold for when a beverage brand starts to become profitable is probably after let's say 15,000, 20,000 stores. so it's a long road. >> whoa. >> a very long road.

>> each distinct butte tore is a world of its own and they all operate on different unique systems. and so i need help withbutte to world of its own and they all operate on different unique systems. and so i need help with figuring out how to grow within those channels before i lose the accounts. >> that lack of distribution causing a third problem, price. when her volume increases, her costs decreases,i inbut right n she doesn't have that luxury. >> so looking at the larger market, my price is always way higher than everything else. >> it's $3.99 for a bottle. that is extremely high for a ready to drink ice tea when you can get a comparable product for maybe $1.25 or less. so right thereshe has shshe has challenge of the shelf. >> maand maybe the most challen is this, her take home salary is still zero.

>> at eight years in, not paying yourself a salary yet, living off your husband's salary and that getting a little tricky, have you thought you know what, i gave it a good run, it's time to close up shop? >> no. that's not -- closing up shop is not an option for us. there is no plan b. this is it. like quitting is not an option. and i don't want to come off aggressive, but yeah. >> by the way, you don't come off aggressive. it takes that kind of attitude to get you through tough times. >> it will take me dying to give up on this what does your husba? >> he's rooting for me, but at the same time, bill's got to be paid. >> we put the same question to her that we had asked arthur. >> if you had to judge your business on a scale from uh-oh to this is fantastic, where would you be? >> that's hard to answer because it's both at the same time. we might have to close these doors next month, but then there is like there are these

opportunities, there is coca-cola possibly, there is u.s. foods. >> the story of an entrepreneur. it's either going to massively fail or we're going to be hugely successful, right? >> items an emotional roller coaster. >> so this is a very critical point right now. >> make it or break it. >> so we're going -- this is just the beginning. we're going to get experts to come in here and take a really hard look, right? really say what is this going to take to make this work. >> i'm very excited about that. we'll be returning to detroit with our experts to try to help her re-energize her business. but for now, let's turn to two people here who know a thing or two about branding. best selling author and marketing expert jeffrey hayeslet and peter is from the members only virtual business

serieses. you just saw that piece. tell me what you think. i asked her and the expert arthur on a scale from uh-oh to this is amazing, where does she fall. >> it's like double uh-oh, but it is amazing. i love her attitude, i love her, i loved all the energy around her. but this is one of those things where the real future is in reading the tea leaves. if you don't make a profit, you can't keep the business going. so stop kidding yourself. don't spend your husband's money or your family's money anymore until you can start to prove that you can make some money with the product. you can't make money with the product, you better shut it down. >> what do you think before i chime in? >> i'm kind of on the same page. i'm a big believer in in pursuing the dream, but at the end of the day if you're not generating enough revenue to continue, you have to ask yourself if i'm not, why nt are i. and if i can change that, i gheed thneed to do that. if not, it might be time to cut bait. i want to see her succeed. >> sounds like a great product, but $3.99 a bottle.

i love bacon and ild pay for that, but not everybody has the money and is able to get this over and over and she has to find the right people. >> but she still is generating enough money to keep the doors open, right? so though she's not taking home a paycheck, the business is still running. she's still getting it out there. and she still has ideas. she knows that these are problems. so when you still have ideas and you still potentially see a path to get there -- >> but she needs to sit down and say it's great to run a business, and i'm not taking a salary myself, that's not going last forever. that's not really running a business. that is just staying afloat. >> that's a hobby. >> exactly. you have to turn it from a hobby into a real business. a real business pays you. >> she needs to say by this day i'm going to do this. one of the biggest things she has to do is reduce the cost. you can still sell it at four

bucks. if you can get people to buy it at four bucks, good for you. i'd also maybe look at taking down the distribution and trying to concentrate just one location and i'd be out there at every craft fair. >> i'd have her go to whole foods, she could charge 14 bucks and call it artisanal, but if ooit she's going to the craft markets, all of a sudden it becomes a bargain at $2. divest. you're looking at two completely different segments you could sell to in two different ways. >> well, we are going back there in a few weeks and we'll bring this our experts, we'll if a your advice also and see if we can turn the company around. >> wish her the best of luck. would you like to have a "your business" makeover for your company? we'll let our viewers sgi who gets the next one. to be eligible, you need to submit a 60 second pitch video telling us why your bills deserves to be selected. send the video to us at

yourbusiness@msnbc.com. or just post to u tune and send youtube and send us the link. we'll post them and give the viewers an opportunity to vote on which one is most deserving of a makeover oig. if are you in retail, you know this feeling. you see people walks through the door, look around and then walk right out without ever buying anything. it is incredibly frustrating. but there is a bit of science to changing this. and one boutique owner in geneva, illinois was intent on figuring it out. she hired two retail experts to come in and mix things up in a way that would result in more sales. in 2010, sherry opened peaceful # parlour in geneva, illinois. the store is now the go-to for locals looking for a custom blend of tea or vienvironmental conscience gift. but with hundreds of tourists expect abouted to come into town

for an annual festival, sharp ary is hoping to convert visitors into repeat customers. so she called in retail strategists rich and georgian to help her get the store ready for the influx of new shomers. >> one of the of the challenges we've been facing is we'll still have people come in and they make a loop around and they walk right out the door. >> if you have people who are walking in the store make goiing walking in the store make goii loop and walking out, they don't understand what you sell. ready to get started? >> let's do it. >> so sherry, this area is really important. it's a key area and it needs to stay open. the first five feet square feet inside the front door of a store is really no man's land because anything you put there, people won't see until they're at least five feet in the store, that's where we stop. >> this space is open space, allows them to slow down. now we romance here. >> you're not giving people enough space to walk in and

actually take in the breadth of the product that you have because by the time they hit their five feet in the door, they're almost hitting this table. >> what i'm saying it's almost liking a talgd waidal wave of merchandise. when i saw those, i had no idea what they were. creating a way to not so much but tell stories and make sure there is a sign that explains it. >> i wouldn't understand these are head bands. if we're going for show this many bright colors and groupings of color, we need to make sure that they're separated enough so the customer understands that this is not just this folded. >> what is in the back in these rooms? >> okay. right there we have our kids room and then over there we have some housewares. >> how do i know that? i've never been here before. >> we're greegt thting them say

hello and be sure to check out kid's room. >> we need to talk about signing because you can't be everywhere. signing is critical for customers. women rely on it. men depend on it. and especially in a store like yours, you have so many unique items and stories to tell about the product, yyou need to tell people this is what this is, this is where we are constantly as we go through the store. don't use all capital letters. you want upper and lower case. you need to take the average age of your oldest customer and guide divide it in half. that's the smallest size font you can use in any of your store signs. >> the prime item that draws people into the store or that you're known for is teas. >> well, one of the things that we do here that is different, we hand blend the teas. we have a little working station back here, so it kind of fits to have the tea back here as far as

logistics for us to move things and package thingthings. >> but could we bring some of the teas in the front of the store. >> a major location and minor location. so we need to utilize minor locations outside of this area. >> with a laundry list of changes to make, they got too work getting the store ready for the first day of the festival. and the next day was the big reveal. >> so we made a couple changes. >> it looks fan be fantastic. >> so we give you the five feet of space herebe fantastic. >> so we give you the five feet of space here so people have more room to shop. we took your table that had the toys underneath, brought this one on top of it, combined the two so now you have multi-level. it's easier to shop for people to see, we've cross-merchandised, but easy to understand now. >> now it's time to put the changes to the test.

>> all right. so what did we learn today? we've learned that when customers walk in the front door because we gave them that extra space, they felt more comfortable shopping. >> into the only did we snot on should see that, everybody went with fwloet. we created this path. instead much seeing just the radiator, they saw the product and they were handling it, talking about it. and they looked at the tea and they all started talking about the tea and that was driving them further into the store. >> and the third thing that they said, wow, she's got a lot of jewelry in here. i didn't know she had that much jewelry. we actually took jewelry away from this space. but because of the ways eye p i merchandised, they thought you had more. so less is more. great content marketing is about the right mix of strategy, creation and distribution. and when with you get it right, it is a win/win. entrepreneur magazine gives five great tech continues on content

marketing. one, do your research. to create strong data-driven content, you need to know what influences your customers. tools like make my persona and akoonu help i had 2350dentify w customers are. two, pick up on trends. tools like google alerts and trends can help you track what is drawing the interest of your customers. sites like clear voice help brainstorm content and track the competition. three, time to create. use google docs and create pinterest boards with snappy headlines. sales and marketing flat forms can help with in-house blogging and social media. four, distribute threw social. management tools like sprout social and coast planner can help you better engage your audience. post with meaning and think of social as a collective space to engage customers. and five, syndicate your

content. you don't always have to invest in new tech to spread marketing content. syndicate content from your website through linked in pulse and medium to reach more of your audience. when we come back, chelsea cross answers a view quer on recruiting and financially motivating any len yalts. and scott harrison from charity water on what your company can learn from his fast growing and very inspiring nonprofit. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next.

find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. what are tips to help identify talent and motivate talent for young millenials coming out of college where a traditional bonus or pay structure might not be the only thing they're looking for? >> leadership is so important. it trickles down to your employees and interns. if you're a leader, allows for millenials to voice their opinion, voice their concern, think outside of the box, be part of the creative. you will see millennial employees be that much more loyal to you and avoid that

job-hopping stereotype. almost a decade ago, i learned of a non-profit called charity water. soon after, i started hearing about them from lots of people. that organization seemed to be on fire, and i was incredibly impressed. well, today i'm even more impressed, because i've been kind of watching it from the sidelines, and it's still around, it is still growing, and it is still doing things so differently than so many other organizations out there. i figured there must be something that we can all learn about how they stood out from the crowd, so i went to talk to the founder, scott harrison, about how he did it. ♪ >> reporter: it was liberia in 2005. new york party promoter scott harrison decided to take a year off to take a humanitarian trip. he came home forever changed. >> i couldn't believe people were drinking dirty water in this day in age. i came home, you know, shouting from the rooftops, this is crazy what i've seen. a billion people are drinking dirty water. this shouldn't be. >> that was the beginning of charity:water, which is helping

people around the world get access to clean water by building wells all over the globe. it's one of the fastest growing nonprofits with a track record many for-profit companies are looking at in awe. >> we've given 7 million people access to clean water, funded 22,000 projects that will help 7 million people across 24 countries. >> last year, they raised more than $30 million. they have more than 2 million loyal followers on social media and companies like google and caterpillar are bending over backwards to help them. what's the secret? how has charity: water succeeded when so many others have faltered? scott says it all starts with a fierce commitment to staying true to your principles. >> i mean, i've always believed that more important than what you do is how you do it. i think we've had many opportunities over the last decade of charity: water to compromise, to take the easy way out, and we really try to hold ourselves accountable. >> it sounds simple, but it's not. his unwillingness to waver on

this point almost did the company in many times. charity: water promises to give 100% of their donations to finding safe water solutions. they have an entirely separate fund-raising account for overhead. at one point, he had millions of dollars in the bank to build wells and only $881 to pay for the overhead. luckily, a last-minute donor saved the day, but this test set the stage for how scott would always run the organization. today, as always, he believes in 100% transparency and sharing the organization's mistakes has only made his community more loyal. >> in order to win trust, you had to be straight with people. and you could share your successes, but you also had to share your failures. we once broadcast a live drill from the central african republic, where we failed. in short, the sand started caving in and the well collapsed. >> why weren't you afraid that donors were going to look at that and say, okay, i just spent all this money to get that rig there, and it didn't work, and what a waste of money, i'm going

to put my money somewhere else? >> because life isn't perfect. people want truth. they don't want a glossy -- they don't believe the glossy perfection that so many charities or so many businesses present to the world. i think they like things that might have a few warts on them. >> it's not only donors scott has attracted, but top-notch employees, people who could easily get higher salaries and stock options elsewhere. he does that by making innovation a key element of how charity: water is run. >> we run this place like a start-up, you know? people walk in the office, and they feel like they're at google or square or twitter or spotify. we have dashboards with metrics. >> and finally, scott says, much of the organization's success rests on their ability to tell its story. >> you need to go and find story tellers and bring them in. i mean, i think i could find a story in the making of mattress

springs. what makes that unique? we're talking about the people that are making it or the values of the company. >> for charity: water, the story is far from over. and with new technology tracking the wells and more donations coming in every day, scott says they'll continue to tell it until every single person around the world has access to safe drinking water. ♪ we now have the "top 2 tips" you need to know to help your growing business. jeffrey and peter are back with us once again. all right, both of you, i know you are chock-full of tips, so pick one. >> killing squirrels. that's what you have to do. the great movie "up" had an old man and a young scout that went on this adventure to paradise falls. they run into a dog named doug, the talking dog. it was outfitted with a collar. you could hear his inner thoughts, and he would say, hey, i like you, you're really cool -- squirrel! and he would look away. every day in business i have

people coming over and talking squirrels to me or i'm looking for squirrels. i have to kill them and get focused on my business and what's important every day. you've got to kill those distractions. >> we call them the bright, shiny objects here. like that's shiny, let me do that! that's shiny. i think we've all had that experience where we got distracted and followed one or two of those and a year or two later say that was a waste of time and money and refocus. >> even a week or a day or a couple of hours could in today's climate really affect you and your business. >> absolutely. all right, peter, you're up. >> my top tip is to understand and embrace your fear. so, the whole premise of being scared is that it's a paralysis. if you're scared, you don't make a move either way. you don't get killed because you make a decision. you get killed because you don't make a decision. so, whether you're scared doing something or not, if you don't do anything, nothing's going to happy. so embrace the fear. learn from it. it's not a failure. just because you failed at something doesn't mean you're a failure. and if you've learned something from your failure, you haven't failed.

i will not hire someone who's not failed multiple times. the best thing you can do is learn from it and do better the next time. >> how do you do that? it's good to say, but you're in the moment where you are paralyzed -- >> burn your boats. >> kill squirrels, burn your boats. >> you don't have a choice. put yourself in a situation where you don't have a choice. have you to make a decision one way or the other. because if you don't, you don't have a boat to get back to where you came from. cortez did that, burned his boats, gave his people no decision, you have to make it where you live. give yourself ten days, if i don't have this done, i'm going to stop it. if i don't have "x" revenues six months from now, it ends. and stick with it, tell someone. make sure you have a tribe of people you can share stuff with and say, hold me to the fire on this. if i don't do it, call it. >> i think having people to go to, and also to just be able to be honest with and say i am scared out of my mind right now, and lo and behold, they're going to come back and say i was there, too. >> it's also like going off the high dive. you're looking down and it's 6 feet off the water, looks like

30 feet, and you jump off. halfway down, you're going, i want to do this again. the fear only lasts a second or two. one, two, and it's over. >> just jump. >> ride the plane down. first time i skydived, he said if you don't do it, you have to ride the plane down. >> that was me bungee jumping. >> that's nuts. >> don't ride the plane down. >> thanks both of you. this week's #yourbizselfie is from lee eckel who owns the triangle food tour company in raleigh, north carolina. created in 2008 they conduct walking craft beer and food tours in raleigh chapel hill and other local areas. close to my heart because that's where i went to college. now, why don't you walk on over to your smartphone, take a selfie of you and your business and send it to us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com or tweet it to @msnbcyourbiz. don't forget to put your name, the name of your business and your location and use #yourbizselfie. thank you, everyone, so much for joining us.

we love hearing from you, so if you have any questions or just want to get in touch, e-mail us at yourbusiness@msnbc.com. we read every single e-mail we get. also, please head on over to our website. it's openforum.com/yourbusiness. we've put up all of the segments from today's show, plus a whole lot more for you. and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. until then, i'm jj ramberg. and remember, we make "your business" our business. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next.

find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. god decided to give me an ice storm for my birthday in year so we're broadcasting from western massachusetts tonight. super happy to be here with a very nice group of people. sort of my home studio but it's been a very, very long time since i've been here. i'm grateful to all the people who made this possible. thank you tonight for being with us as well. there's a lot going on tonight. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are in the other half of this state. they are co-headlining a big, big rally in boston. this is an event that has attracted thousands of people soldout event here in deep blue massachusetts. you know, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren probably still are the highest profile